A few days after Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said the noise from the home crowd at EverBank Stadium created issues for his team’s defense, defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell echoed the sentiment Thursday.
“It’s the crowd noise,” Caldwell said when asked why the team had communication issues Monday. “It’s a good thing, as a defensive coach and as a defensive player, you want it to be as loud as it can be. We just have to do a better job of communicating. Getting tighter in the huddle, echoing the call, and go from there.
“You want the crowd as loud as it can be. It’s our job to communicate. We have to get in the huddle, get tighter, make sure we echo the calls, and get the call to everybody. It has nothing to do with crowd noise, it’s just us. We understand that it should be loud at home, it will be loud at home, and we just have to handle it.”
In a 34-31 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Jaguars allowed 491 yards of total offense, the most of any game this season and more than any game last season too. Especially surprising is the fact that it came against a team led by Jake Browning, a quarterback making his second career start. The Bengals averaged 291.7 yards prior to Monday.
Jacksonville, on the other hand, returned all 11 starters from last season and had all 11 of those players active in Week 13.
